Mad World
by Rivain
Summary: Benjamin Carmine was never able to find out if his brother Clayton was part of this operation. Sadly the elder Carmine was not taken out of this mission, like every other COG he and his squad Echo-Eight have been ordered down into the Hollows. Re-uploaded
1. Summary

Mad World Version:

Hollow Storm:

Benjamin Carmine was never able to find out if his brother Clayton was part of this operation. Sadly the elder Carmine was not taken out of this mission, like every other COG he and his squad (Echo-Eight) have been ordered down into the Hollows to take the fight to the Locust.

With their recent Sergeant murdered by tickers the squad is forced to put up with one of the most disliked Sergeants in the COG who has a bad reputation with bringing men home. While Delta continues down their adventure follow Clayton and Echo-Eight on their adventure.

**Disclaimer **: _I do not own the Gears of War Universe or any of its original characters. I do own the plot and my own characters.  
_

**Note:** _I will not be adding disclaimers to all of my chapters or notes...there may be some here and there but since this story is mainly posted on deviantart I don't have it added to all the chapters. _

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**Update 30052012  
**

Due to my idiocy for having too many emails, I have no way of figuring out which E-mail was for my MiranaKannon.

So I have created on final account for all of my creative outlets. (Gaia, Fanfic, so forth)

Pretty much to put it in a nutshell for those of you who haven't been to my page.

I am re-posting all my stories on this account. So if you have read them on MiranaKannon, there is no need to reread them here.


	2. 001

_All around me are familiar faces…_

"LOCUST!" Every member in Echo headed for cover as they grabbed their Lancers from their back, "What did I tell you, things were going to go to hell the second the second we all met up." A male screeched through the comm links as the squad fired at the grubs.

"Clear that grub hole!" The leader yelled as he took the head off a drone, "Get a frag down there!" The corporal frowned as she held out her pistol knocking out whatever enemy she could, if there was one thing she learned from this damn enemy it was that the sons of bitches were smarter than they led on. She nearly had her head taken out earlier in the day just trying to glance down the scope of her Longshot, luckily Carmine managed to kill the son of a bitch who missed his first shot.

"Frag out!" Clay yelled as he ran up to the grub hole before chucking the grenade in the center of it and taking cover. Seconds later the explosive went off shaking the ground beneath them as it collapsed in itself. "Hole cleared!" Snub pistol still in hand the sniper couldn't help but groan at their situation, they (COG) had been at war with these damn locust for fifteen years now…and if their little underground civilization had anything to say about them- it was that the damned grubs had a lot more people on their end than the COG did to this day. "Boomer!" Gold eyes shot over to the large beast before a frown played on the snipers lips, _fifteen years we have been at this war…maybe if we weren't so damn fixated on killing each other during the seventy-nine damn years before E-day- maybe we would have been a little more prepared for this._

"Jones, do you see any vantage points." Back under cover and reloading the sniper slammed her pointer finger down on the comm.

"That better be a rhetorical question." She snapped before jumping out of cover to knock out the guard that was two barricades in front of her. Emptying out her pistol the specialist ducked back down into cover as she reloaded and looked over at her comrades. Carmine, she never did learn his rank, was chucking another grenade in the grub hole that just opened up. Pratt was kneeling around his cover blasting the enemy with their own Hammerburst he had picked up earlier in the day after running out of Lancer ammo. The private from Hotel-squad they had found earlier was reloading his own lancer, before stepping out of cover to run up to another; finally Staff Sergeant Longmire had just emptied his own clip and ducked down into cover before reloading the Lancer before slamming his own pointer finger into the comm link glaring straight at her.

"Then what good are you down here?" Specialist Jones merely smirked as she peered out of cover before mowing down the two grubs in front of her. Kneeling back down to reload the snipers grin deepened before she shot up and took the head off of the grub the Sergeant was shooting at before returning to the grubs that were attempting to take her own life.

"Common misunderstanding _sarge._ But just because one is a specialist in sniping does _not_ mean they must _snipe_ with a _sniper._ It simply means that we have a hell of a lot better accuracy than the rest of you." She didn't have to be looking at the sergeant to know he was seething, because of that she mentally congratulated herself. "I would think someone of your rank, would know that." With that she was out of cover taking out the last two grubs before reloading and standing straight up.

"That was one hell of a bunch, wasn't it?" Private Gonzalez spoke up as she went around in search for more longshot and Lancer ammo a couple steps away from Carmine. "To think that these things have been living down here all this time and we had no idea… what do you think caused them to come up?"

"Beats me," Pratt replied as the female chucked him some Hammerburst Ammo, "They couldn't have picked a better time if they are going for world domination." He finished as the specialist stripped what little ammo was left in the snub she found lying on the ground, "While we were losing those 30510 battle hardened gears they were biding their time."

"What if they had all of this planned out? The imulsion, the war."

"That would be giving them too much credit." Jones mumbled as Carmine nodded to her right, "I mean I am not saying that they are completely stupid, or anything but I don't think they could have planned all of this out. Why bother with us 'ground walkers' when they seem to have everything they could possibly need down here?" With that she snapped her pistol to her belt before crossing her arms, "If you ask me something drove them to the higher grounds," Before she could finish the Sergeant chose to speak up.

"Shut your yaps we have grounds to map and cover." The Specialist rolled her eyes as he stomped over to her, "And next time I tell you to find a vantage point, do it." Casually she glanced down at his finger that was poking her breast plate armor, "Got it, Specialist."

"We will just have to wait and see to find out, now wont we?" The Sergeant retracted his finger as she roughly stepped forward in order to get into his face before storming off past her slamming his shoulder into her own. "Oooh, real mature Sarge."

"Once we get back to high ground consider your days numbered." Ignoring the look that Pratt was giving her the female threw her arms in the air overdramatically.

"Oh no, prison. Whatever shall I do."

"That would be a reward, I'll be looking to getting you back in the farms." The other members of the party shot their attention to the specialist as she crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Good luck there, last I checked once you were marked Barren you were of no use to them." With that all communication seized, Longmire took point with Carmine, Gonzalez and Pratt in center while she covered their six. They continued down the unknown grounds for what seemed like hours, Jones was busying herself wondering where her brothers could be. Last she had heard Jimmy had just enlisted and Jordan was finishing up his last years in school…with no interest in joining the COG. She hadn't heard from her father since his letters stopped coming in when she was young and the Pendulum wars were still going on, and she made an effort to avoid her mother at all costs every time she was at Jacinto.

"Hey, Jones." The tan skinned woman glanced up arching a brow at the red heads sudden conversation. A slight tilt of the head gave him the okay to continue on, "You alright?" At that she recoiled back, was it completely unnatural for her to just sit down and think sometimes.

"Peachy? Why?" To say she was confused would be an understatement, from what she could recall she had given him no reason to worry about her. The Sergeant and her always were cutting at the others throat whenever they had the chance, that was nothing out of normal aside from him taking a blow below the belt and mentioning her time in the farms there was nothing to worry 'em. The red head nudged slightly to the other two who had stolen a glance back whenever they could before lowering his voice to a whisper.

"Had the private worried, Carmine as well. Normally any talk to any female about the farms is a definite no go, especially those who came from there." At that Jones threw her hand to her chest and put on the most 'appreciative' looking expression she could muster while trying not to chuckle.

"Aww, I'm flattered you weren't worried at all?" The red head expression darkened, letting out an overdramatic sigh the brunette threw her arms over the back of her head. "Fine, I'm serious though. What's the point of staying pissed off at every man or COG member you meet – especially if you join the COG yourself, over shit they had nothing to do with. Call it forgiveness or ignorance; I just simply don't hold you accountable for the deeds that were done there." She shrugged, "Plus, I have a promise to keep."

"A promise, eh?" Jones nailed the COG in the shoulder before cracking up laughing alongside him, earning glances from the three men in front of them. "Alight, alright. I'll go tell 'em your fine. But if you need anyone to talk to-"

"You will be right there. I know that red, we have only known each other since High School." With that he scurried up to the others leaving Jones behind with her thoughts. A smirk slowly spread across her features as she watched the three of them interacted with one another, the second Longmire glanced back the smirk flipped to a sly grin.


	3. 002

_Worn out places.._

Jones stretched out her legs as she sat under cover, _nothing like a boomer roaring in your ear to wake you up in the morning._ She had just gotten off guard watch and shut her eyes when the damned Locust chose now to begin their ambush. After the little outburst about her past two days ago things had been moving exceptionally slow for Echo-eight. They had gained radio contact with control on the second day since they had landed down in these forsaken lands sadly they managed to lose it a couple of hours later after venturing further into the underground. "Grinder!"

"You would swear we would be nearing some sort of important base with these kinds of guys ambushing us." Pratt groaned over the communication link as he emptied his own clip into the beast who was focused on Gonzalez. "Seriously what kind of ambush has these big, LOUD, guys?"

"Booom!" Jones ducked under cover and watched in slight horror and amusement as his shot hurled a foot above her head and into the cover just to the right of the Private who sent her a horrifying expression. A quick shrug was the only response she could offer him before bringing herself up out of cover before emptying a clip into the boomer.

"I want to know how the hell we all didn't hear them." She groaned through the comm links.

"Quit your yappin and shoot the damned thing!" Longmire roared as the boomer fell and all attention turned to the remaining grinder, theron and drones. Growling to herself the sniper pulled out her longshot as she scanned the area for the unique glow that was the torque bow. Just as she brought her eye to the sighs a glowing orange light caught her attention. Snapping her sighs to her two o clock the female smirked as she made out the facial features of the grotesque being before pulling the trigger and ducking back under cover as his arrow landed on her cover. Seconds later the arrow went off sending debris over the specialist's head as she reloaded her longshot before setting it on the ground to retrieve her lancer.

With the remaining of the grubs murdered Jones went about scavenging what little ammo she could for her allies while listening to the conversation Pratt and Carmine were holding. "So your telling me, out of everything on this whole planet Bacon is your most favorite food?" With her hands full of hammerburst and snub ammo the cocoa skinned girl snickered as she offered the ammo to the two men.

"Why the hell wouldn't it be, I can tell by the look in your eye that you agree." A smile played on her lips as Pratt merely shrugged before walking over to Gonzalez leaving Jones alone with Carmine. "You agree don't ya specialist?" Jones pursed her lips attempting to make it seem like she actually had to think about her thoughts on bacon. Truth be told she could have lived off the stuff before she enlisted, aside from seeing the pig itself the female hadn't had a bite of the stuff in years.

"I would like to indulge my taste buds with the greasy stuff," At that the two of them chuckled before she continued on, "I mean it's been years Carmine, I don't think I could honestly say I remember what it tastes like anymore." He became motionless, though she couldn't say what expression his features held under that mask she could tell you that the man was (at least) seemingly taken aback by her comment.

"That should be some sort of sin." He managed out as the two of them took rear guard on today's patrol. "Believe me when I say it's ten times better than those rations they insist on feeding us." The two of them chuckled as they continued down the darkened paths.

"I don't think it takes much to taste better than those bars of nastiness." Jones managed out before they fell into a peaceful silence. As they continued down the forsaken grounds Jones' found her mind wandering to her eldest brother. Jimmy was two years younger than her and was barely a sophomore when she dropped out of high school and enlisted in the military… much to her mother's dismay. She had managed to get letters to and from him during her first year with the COG but after that echo-eight had been moved to the front lines and she was lucky to even receive letters back from her brother.

"Pratt tells me you have siblings." Clay spoke up, detraining her from her thoughts. Only now did she notice her hands was hovering over the pocket that had her recent letters she hadn't managed to send out before drilling down, and the last letter she had received from her sibling months ago. Jones Chocolate orbs flew over to the Gear, a brow arched.

"That I do. He was good friends with Pratt last I checked." Her sights went back over to the red head who, even after all these years, managed to keep his hair trimmed short. "We all went to the same high school back before I dropped out and enlisted years ago, feels like just yesterday though. Sometimes I cant believe so much time has already passed." A dry chuckle escaped her lips as they continued on. "You got any family?"

"Three brothers," The specialist could tell by the tone of his voice that there was some story that came with that. But if he was anything like her, he wouldn't willingly give out information on them especially if there was a chance they were enlisted as well. Families seemed to be a touchy subject to most COG members, especially when more than one sibling happened to enlist. Then again why wouldn't it be, even with all their technological advances there was still no way to know whether or not they were alright. All one could do was write and hope for the best. "Havent heard from them for quite some time now that I think about it."

"Hate to say it, but I doubt any word will get to the either of us while we are down here." She yawned as she stretched out her arms over her head. "I mean, that is unless the locust don't have some sort of mailing system down here. And these attacks are just some sort of misunderstanding." The two of them broke out into a fit of laughter. Pratt had glanced back with Gonzalez at the sudden outbreak before shaking his head and returning to the conversation that the two of them were holding. Luckily, for Jones' sanity, Longmire didn't bother to glance or comment on it.

"Somehow I don't think that is the case." He managed out, the specialist merely shrugged before letting out another yawn.

"One could hope, no?" A slight nod was her only response before Pratt motioned for Carmine to join him and Gonzalez leaving Jones alone to fight against her urge to sleep. _Stupid buggars got what they had coming… I'm sick of missing days on end of sleep while douchebag up there gets a full eight hours every night._ She hadn't called the Sergeant out on it quite yet, but she sure as hell noticed his little game while on one of her previous mind rants. _All I can do is wish that Jackson hadn't been mauled by those tickers. _Jones winced at the still fresh memory, _and try to continue on for the others sakes._

"Jones?" The snipers eyes shot over to the private and mentally she groaned,_ how did I not notice him fall back here with me?_ A curt nod indicated he could continue, "I was asking if you were holding up well." At that the female arched another brow as a smile played on her lips.

"That seems to be on everyone's mind in this squad as of late." She replied loud enough for the others to hear before leaning down to his ear with a sly smirk on her features. "You wouldn't be worrying about me, because I'm a female now are you private?" Instantly his head was ferociously shaking, "Good." With that Jones was back up to her level before crossing her arms. "To answer your question," Again she spoke loud enough for the two in front of them to hear, "I'm just fine. What brought this along though, private?" The later question was spoken only for him to hear.

"You have yawned quite a number of times today." Jones grinned slightly as she finished yawning once more, the expression Gonzalez gave her was that of a child who had proven his point. "I fear that you aren't getting enough sleep, which is not something our only sniper and comrade with medical training should endulge themselves in." Jones laughed, _maybe that's why I am in such a bubbly mood as of late. _

"Trust me, if at all possible I would pass out right here and now. Sadly ser douchebag the second doesn't seem like the kind to stop for someone as gorgeous as me…thus I must push on." The specialist was glaring and thinking of all sorts of ways to bring the Sergeant to his knees and beg for mercy, thus her voice darkened for her final comment on the topic. "And trust me, sleep is not something I give up easily. But you guys need me and it is because of that sole reason why I push onward."

There was no way to tell the time down in the hollows, what she did know was that this operation was not supposed to take long. With the COG though there was no telling how 'quick' they wanted this operation to be. "To any and all COG soldiers down in the hollows." Jones stopped moving and pushed her earpiece deeper into her ear, she wasn't imagining this was she? _Out of any voice in the world I doubt I would imagine this one._ She groaned internally, "Reinforcements are on the way, the beacon has been lit and meet up with reinforcements there for further information."

"Ever get the feeling you are missing something?" Pratt groaned as all attention turned to the JACK that was hovering near Longmire.

"All the time." Carmine replied before the Sergeant turned to face them

"You heard the lieutenant, lets head out." With that Echo-eight made their way, with the aid of JACK of course, to the beacon. _Why do I get the feeling we are going from the frying pan to the fire?_


	4. 003

_Worn out faces_

They had been walking for goodness knows how long, it went without saying that almost everyone in the squad was just about fed up with their leader. Jones had been the first to try and obtain information out of the Sergeant, it also went without saying that it ended anything but well. "So are you going to tell us what the hell is going on?" To everyones amazement the sniper had actually gone up and joined the Sergeant up front. "Or are you just going to allow us to run blindly into danger?"

"I highly suggest you hold your tongue, information is given on a need to know bases." Longmire snapped quickening his pace to get away from the woman; Jones bit her lip not amused with any of this. Her chocolate orbs glances back at the rest of her team; as usual Carmine's and Gonzales' expressions were hidden behind their COG issued helmets, the later at least gave her a shrug unsure of what to make of the secrecy. Finding no response out of Carmine she turned her sights to Pratt who like the Sergeant and herself chose against wearing the helmet. His blue eyes told her everything she needed to know, he did not want her to press the matter but if he knew her like she thought he did he would know his silent pleas had fallen on deaf ears.

Quickening her own pace Jones slapped a hand down on the Sergeants shoulder, "You know damn well that shit like that doesn't sit well with me." She could feel him tense, even under all of the armor he had on. "You should also know that I am not as obedient as other COG members." His brown eyes snapped and locked into hers. "I am sure you are also aware of the fact that I have been in this Order long enough to know that when your commanding officer or NCO tells you it is on a 'need to know bases…'" She brought her hands up to make air quotations on his quote before bringing her right hand down and indicated with her fingers her points, "That one, they have been assigned to walk their squad into bull shit scenarios that will more than likely get them killed. Or…well they themselves don't know what the hell is going on."

Walking in step next to the officer Jones noted the frown played on his features, she had obviously hit some sort of nerve. _It looks like he wants to punch the shit out of me, actually._ Before he could come up with any reply though a voice shot from behind them. "SNIPER!" Jones hadnt noticed how far ahead the two of them had marched forward until that very moment, Pratt's voice seemed far off. Before the two of them had time to even look for cover Jones found herself dragging the downed sergeant through a barrage of bullets.

"Get to cover!" Longmire spat out from behind her as she closed in on the barricade that was no more than fifteen yards from her. "I gave you an order, Specialist."

"Last I recall," She grumbled shoving him under cover as bullets fly all around her, only when she was sure he wouldn't get his did she fall into cover herself. "I was to only listen to you if you told me to seek out a vantage point. Nothing more, nothing less." She smirked when chuckles echoed in her ears, they would need to be in a life or death situation in order to get along. The specialist grabbed a grenade and sighed, _this could very well kill me._ She glanced at Longmire who was holding his pistol up against his chest. _But I need time to inspect his wound._ She locked eyes with the Sergeant before nodding, more to herself than anything, and standing out of cover.

"The hell are you doing Jones?" Pratt yelled from behind, she heard his calls but at the moment they were anything but important. Leaning forward she stuck the grenade in between the floor and her cover before reeling back to safety and inspecting the Sergeant. Pushing the snub pistol away from his chest the Specialist gave him a good look over, his lower body seemed fine. She lifted the both of his legs and patted them down, if he was in any pain from there she would have heard it. Moving upward without a second thought Jones patted down his waist and torso before moving her way up to his arms.

"Where are you hit Sarge?" She had to yell over the gunfire and static running through her communication link. For the first time in ages her chocolate orbs locked in with his dark browns, without a word his sights moved from her eyes to his right arm. Following his lead the Specialist grimaced at the sight, it had to have been the adrenaline rush that forced her to overlook the blood that soaked his long sleeve. "Oh son of a bitch." Jones reached into her left rear pouch to grab some gauze to dress the wound, "this is going to hurt like a bitch sarge."

"Much to your pleasure I am sure." At that she smirked as she set the bandage down and grabbed her flask. Unscrewing the lid the specialist smirk as she held out his arm and smirked, before the sergeant could reply the woman tipped the flask over and allowed the liquid to pour over his wound. "Son of a bit-" Not wanting anymore attention to be brought to them Jones shoved the flask in his mouth, _douche better finish it off. No way in hell am I drinking out of there again._ It went against all sorts of regulation to carry around any sort of alcoholic beverage in your canteen, or in her case flask. The only reason why Jackson allowed it was for situations like these. Luckily for Jones Vodka happened to be one of the few alcoholic drinks she enjoyed, which also made for a good disinfectant if the situation called for it.

"Told you so." Jones murmered as she stretched out the guaze and began to wrap the wound, of course it was not recommended to use any sort of drinking alcohol to disinfect open cuts but at the moment she had little to no choice. "Now sit still, shut up and finish that." Content after pinning the bandage down Jones reached up for her lancer, before glancing back at the others. Clay and Gonzalez were behind the same cover, Gonzalez looked like he was reloading while Clay was shooting at whoever he could. It took a while but she eventually did find Pratt he was much closer than the other two and was mowing people down with his Lancer. The two made eye contact before he went undercover and she popped out of hers.

She set her sights over the first drone and knocked him out without much trouble, sadly this drew a lot of attention her way. Watching as four of the six remaining drones turned to her the sniper ducked back undercover. "What's out there specialist?" Jones glanced down at the Sergeant before peering around her cover, not daring to look over it- she did like her head where it was.

"From what I could see six. The others did a great job of picking the others off and keeping attention off of us." He nodded as she pulled her second grenade from its respectful place, leaning to the right the tan skinned woman chucked the grenade at two drones who were focused on her allies behind her.

"Grena-" The voice was cut off and replaced by the sound bodies being torn apart, peeking her head out of cover once more specialist brought her lancer out with her and downed a lone drone.

"Looks like that is the last of them!" Gonzalez yelled from behind, she glanced around finding no threat the specialist looked back to the others before nodding. One by the one three of them stood out of cover and made their way over to the Sergeant and herself.

"How's Sarge?" Pratt asked kneeling down with the two of them as Clay and Amir continued onward on a search for ammo. Glancing back at the red head Jones shrugged. "What do you mean you don't know?" At that she rolled her eyes before standing and holding a hand out for him to take.

"It didn't hit anything critical, if that's what you want to know. But I don't think he will be firing a weapon anytime soon unless he is left handed." Longmire took her hand and pulled himself up just as Clay's voice echoed in the halls.

"We got a downed one!" The three of them joined up with Clay and Gonzalez who shuffled over to the fully armored gear. The four members exchanged glances to one another before nodding, Jones took out her pistol and aimed it at the drone before flipping the gun to where the barrel was in her hand and offered it to Longmire.

"This one is all yours Sarge." His brown eyes fell down to her pistol, he stood there for a moment before taking the weapon with his left hand. The specialist went for her own ammo sweep leaving the four of them with the gurgling drone, as she bent down to pick up some lancer ammo a single shot rang in the air. Horror washed over the snipers features as she dropped to the ground, clutching her stomach.

"SARGE!" Amir roared from behind her as the sound of fully armored gears hit the ground, a moment later two more shots rang in the air. One flew on to her left, obviously from the man behind her. The second grazed her nose and it was a shot that she recognized all too well, Jones reached for her longshot ignoring the footsteps running toward her. She scanned the surrounding area ignoring the pain coming from her abdomen and the strong arms that lifted her up onto the COGS shoulder. More pistol shots rang from her very own pistol as the gear continued to haul her to cover, sniper still in hand the specialist cringed as another shot rang from the sniper luckily it missed both herself and her savior and she was able to catch the light reflecting off of its scope.

Bringing her own scope to her eye the specialist shot her sights on the locusts' hiding spot and smirked as she made out his facial features in the dark crevice. "I got you now, you ass." The shot was anything but ideal, she was on the shoulders of one of her allies, being shot at by her own sergeant, it was dark, and her vision was fading- knowing she didn't have much time before she herself would black out the brunette pulled the trigger the second her crosshairs closed on the locust.

To her relief a body came crashing from above just as she was thrown off the shoulder of her comrade and into his arms as he hid behind a wall. "Are you alright?" Jones let out a sigh of relief at the familiar voice but frowned the second three more shots echoed through the halls. She couldn't bring herself to answer his question; _someone in my squad is dead._ "Jones?" The specialist shook her head as the edges of her vision blurred; she felt her knees buckle which forced Carmine to tighten his grasp on her. A moment later two pairs of footsteps stomped over to them as Clay positioned her to sit up against the wall, bringing a new definition of pain to erupt from her stomach.

"Jackie!" Pratt kneeled down and she could tell by the look on his expression that her injury was bad. "Why?" Jones managed to let out a chuckle but cut it short and grimaced at the pain, "You saved his ass… what the hell happened?" Amir was the next to kneel down next to her he took off his helmet for the second time in the whole time he had been traveling with them. She was pleased to see the familiar face of her old friend and gave him a quick smile before turning down to her wound.

"I am going to need help with this one." The sergeant had managed to hit her in one of the thinner parts of the female armor. Her breastplate covered all but her lower stomach, under that she wore what any other female COG did an undershirt that could deflect almost any shot. Key word almost, one of its few flaws was that it was not quite perfected- if hit close up by almost any weapon it could be punctured and was weak against sniper and torque shots. Had she been further away from the traitor before he shot- she would have been fine, sadly she wasn't and the bullet manage to penetrate the armor…sadly it didn't exit, which meant that digging the son of a bitch out was going to hurt. And she had given the traitor the rest of her vodka, so infection was a very high possibility. "Whose gonna dig this bitch out?"


	5. 004

_Bright and early for the daily races…_

_"Sister!" Jones spun on her heel and held out her arms allowing her youngest brother to jump into them, it had been years since she had last seen him but now he was a fully grown man. She hadn't even noticed until she was set back on the ground that he; like Jimmy, had grown taller than her during her absence. "You don't know how good it is to see you again!" She was psyched to see him that was for sure…but something felt, wrong. "Are you okay sis? You look pale." He brought his hand up to her cheek and it was then she noticed how much bigger he truly was. _

_ "Y-you're huge Jordan. What the hell? Did you enlist too?" She found herself listening to his booming laughter, not amused she frowned and crossed her arms after swatting his hand away. "I will take that as a no." He sat there and laughed for a moment longer before shaking his head and whipping away a stray tear. _

_ "No sis, I got into thrashball." At that she arched a brow, "You know the sport?" He stepped back and took out his wallet. The first couple pictures were of the family; their mother and father on their wedding day, the three of them as kids, individual pictures of Jimmy and herself in their uniform after enlisting, and one final of their father in full gear. After that she looked at the pictures of him on his thrashball team and some members that he had faced. "Believe it or not sis, I met the one and only Cole Train!" At that she smiled, he had always been the Cole Train's number one fan. _

_ "Who do you play for?" Something was telling her that this was not normal and something was wrong, but she was just so happy to see him for the first time in years. _

_ "Sharks got our asses handed to us by Cole himself. But hey! He is one hell of a player!" He rubbed his shoulder and she could only imagine that it was from some sort of hit he had obtained in the past._

"Jones!" _The specialist snapped her sights from her brother to the white void behind her, and only then did she notice that there was no scenery around them. At this realization the female's head throbbed harder forcing her to bring a hand up to it. _

_ "Aww, damn. I was hoping we would have more time to catch up. Here I am talking all about myself and I haven't heard a thing about you." Her chocolate orbs snapped back to her brother unshed tears threatening to fall, "Aw, now don't be like that sis. We'll see each other again someday." At that she numbly nodded as he stepped up and hugged her once more, the contact knocked the unshed tears free and was much too short. Pushing away from her the specialist watched as he turned away and waved back at her, glancing over his shoulder. "Be safe sis."_

Jones snapped up and straight into something hard before falling back down clutching her nose in agony. "Son of a bitch." Laughter erupted around her at that she scowled as she opened her eyes at the three familiar faces. "Ha-ha, laugh at my pain. Just wait until you need to be patched up." The laughs only continued as she pulled her hands from her nose before glancing down at it. Even with her deep caramel skin color she noted the red tint and it actually looked like it was pulsating. _Good news, no blood?_ "All fun in games until I find out its broken."

"S-sorry about that Jones. You were thrashing about and both red and Mexican refused to wake you." Clay managed as his laughter calmed, "I wasn't expecting you to shoot straight up." Her eyes first drifted to her high school friends sending them a glare before turning to Carmine and shrugging.

"Could have turned out worse I suppose." She shrugged now poking her nose with her left pointer finger, "But don't think I will forget about this." Clay chuckled as she turned to the others, "Any of you." Stretching out her legs the female sighed in relief as she popped her knees, _gawd that feels soo good._ "Where are we?" Jones went to stand up and instantly regretted it, now the adrenaline died down and pain erupted from her stomach. Clay, still being the nearest out of the three of them wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Careful there."

"No pain killers, sorry Jones." The female shot Pratt a 'no shit' expression before removing her hand from her side and nodding for Carmine to let her go. "Seriously though Jackie, you need to keep from moving too much." With that she arched a brow before motioning with her free arm to the environment around them.

"I don't think that is an option in this situation." She was on her feet but refrained from moving at the moment. "Unless of course you guys don't mind me finding some hole to lie in and wait for my death." The expression played on Red face was the only thing she needed before smirking, "I didn't think so. Now," The specialist slowly reached down for her lancer and longshot, "Nothing has changed, we still have to reach Nexus."

"Echo-eight?" Jones threw herself upward and straight into Jack who was still in the middle of making himself known. Her hand shot up to the back of her head before she groaned a 'really?' "Echo-eight it's good to see you in one piece, where is your sergeant." Lucy was looking around through Jack at the four of them.

"Dead, what do you need?" The specialist growled still rubbing the back of her head as she picked up her pistol and grenades. "Lieutenant." Lucy's blue eyes landed on Jones for a moment taking in the information before speaking once more.

"Did you say dead?"

"Nothing to be surprised about Stroud. We are down in Locust territory; moron got his head taken off by a sniper."

"And you didn't do anything?"

"I know you can't tell since I have my armor on, but I am injured myself. I have yet to meet a sniper who can knock out another when there is a shell entrapped in their abdomen. Now what is going on?"

"A warning, other squads in you-" The specialist didn't have the privilege of listening to the Lieutenant any further than that, the next thing she knew there was a body thrown over here and bullets were flying all throughout the air.

"Son of a bitch, what are they fucking bunnies?" Even with the rush of adrenaline running through her veins the female could still feel her injury pulsating. "JACK, find a clearing!"

"Echo-Eight!" Luckily that was the only thing she could hear from the lieutenant before Jack disappeared. Lancer in hand the female began shooting at the hideous monsters as one of the guys dragged her behind cover.

"There are too many of them, Jones." It was red at her side, "And there are more and more holes appearing we don't have the explosives to take them out." The two of them were taking turns emptying their clips into the enemy and ducking undercover, to ensure that someone was holding them off at all times. She already had a plan, all she needed was for Jack to return and order the others into obeying her order. As if on cue the bot made his presence known a couple of feet in front of her while she reloaded her weapon.

"Good." She then pulled the PFC down and grabbed onto his shoulders. "Now listen to me and listen good. I need you to gather up the other two and make a run with the route JACK mapped out." She could see his indecision in the depths of his blue eyes, so she shook him holding back the tears that were threatening to fall. "Don't! I need you guys to make it to nexus, get the hell out of here. I'm injured and there is no way in hell all of us could make it out. I will stay back and cover you guys while you make the run."

"I don't like this-"

"You don't have to, now go. Take these." She handed him her two bolo grenades then motioned to Carmine, "Give them to him, he threw his two already and get the hell out of here. IF, and that IF is very big. IF I can make it out of here before we blow these hollows up I will, I'll meet you topside wherever they have us meet up since Jacinto will be long gone." She let go of his shoulder and pulled out the letters she had in her pocket before shoving them into his grasp. "Get these to Jimmy, I meant to send them out before we went down. And look for him for me." The two of them stared at one another until a grenade went off in front of their cover. Jones then wrapped her arms around her friend for one last hug before picking up her Lancer, "JACK get them out of here." With that she threw herself back over cover, "Carmine, Gonzalez follow Pratt. GO, Go, go!"

She didn't dare look back at Pratt even when she came down to reload her Lancer, nor did she allow herself to shed a single tear until she was up again and looking down the sights. She knew the moment the PFC left, and she was alone left to hold off the Locust from mowing down her men. She knew the moment when both Clay and Amir were gone, their guns were no longer firing down at the grubs, and she knew the moment they left when she sat down to reload her Lancer for the third time. _Out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. I hope you're happy you fucking ass._


End file.
